Abraham Joshua Heschel: Essential Writings

Modern Spiritual Masters

by Susannah Heschel (editor), Abraham Joshua Heschel

Abraham Heschel (1907-1972) was one of the great religious teachers and moral prophets of our time. Born in Warsaw to a long line of Hasidic rabbis, he chose instead to study philosophy in Germany. Expelled back to Warsaw, he escaped just weeks before the Nazi invasion and settled in the United States. Through a series of books he contributed greatly to the spiritual renewal of Judaism. But he exerted an equal influence on Christians, so much that he was called another "apostle to the gentiles." A passionate champion of interfaith dialogue, he served as an official observer at Vatican II and was influential in challenging the Catholic church to overcome the legacy of anti-Semitism. He raised a prophetic challenge to the social issues of his day, marching with Martin Luther King and protesting the Vietnam war. His writings here on prayer, God, prophecy, the human condition, and the spiritual life vividly communicate his instinct for the "holy dimension of all existence."

Genres: Philosophy, Faith, Religion, Nonfiction, Jewish, Judaism, Spirituality

200 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2011

Reviews

[Sheeba Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an essential read for anyone looking to couple spiritual practice with social justice. I heard about the rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel through an On Being podcast. His reflections are so incredibly timely to our current context. He pushes humanity to go beyond ego and his teachings have the potential to push us to the next level. He speaks to cultivating the inner life while not ignoring the external world around us. The book provides the kind of spiritual leadership that might not be fully present in 2017. It's comforting looking just a few decades back to know we can still find this truth, "Indeed we forfeit the right to pray, my father said, if we are silent about the cruelties committed in our name by our government...how dare we come before God with our prayers when we commit atrocities against the one image we have of the divine: human beings."

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd read a little bit of Rabbi Heschel's writings before reading this collection of excerpts grouped around several themes. These selections are a wonderful introduction to his life and work, including unpublished writing, speeches and excerpts from his books. His daughter, a scholar in her own right, supplements her father's writings with biography and introductions to each section that give depth and context to the passages she has chosen.

[Chrystie Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. As a Jewish rabbi who does not believe in Christ, I differ with him significantly in places. But Heschel was a brilliant mind and clearly a man who loved Yahweh. He held the tension between God as Father and Judge, the intimate and the infinite, the severity and compassion, truth and mercy. He’s given me much fodder to ponder and, ultimately, he inspired not only a deeper love for the Lord, but also ironically a greater gratitude for Christ. A meaty read.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

this man is rly heck'n smart; great thoughts on radical amazement/wonder as a foundation of spiritual life; makes me wanna be more ~childlike~ and also just ~be~

[Drick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent sampling of Heschel's writings with introductions by his daughter Susannah

November 2017 - I reread this book and found Heschel's insights on the nature of religion, race, the need for the prophetic and their connection to the spiritual life to be profound. While writing from an Orthodox Jewish perspective, Heschel provides a fresh and challenging view on the spiritual life that can enrich Christians as well as Jews.

[R. Allain · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many spiritual seekers, myself included, the search for wisdom often entails lengthy slogs through the wastelands, also known as deserts. For every established master, say a Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day or Thomas Merton, an avalanche of decent, but lesser guides exist. But occasional, and blessedly, as the Hindu expression notes, "When the student is ready, the teacher arrives." And man, is Abraham Joshua Heschel a teacher! Three words to describe him: accessible, uncompromising, authentic. His life itself would make a remarkable film. Born into an illustrious family of rabbis, expelled from a German graduate school for being Jewish, (at one point, subsisting on potatoes), fleeing Warsaw for America two weeks before the Nazi invasion and being ostracized by fellow academics for challenging the push for Jewish assimilation to post-war American society. OK, enough history perhaps. But not before a hearty bravo to his daughter and educator Susannah Heschel for her compelling, in-depth introduction to her father's story - and herein choosing brilliant selections from his writings. And repeatedly, one gets profound perspectives not only on her father the theologian, but her father the man. Once, for example, someone asked him why he was so concerned about the war in Vietnam. He replied pithily, "Because I can't pray without seeing images of napalmed children on the page." And this book serves up brilliant sections on Heschel's take on modern Judaism (he feared its spirituality was evaporating), the prophets (who taught 'the evil of indifference' was humankind's greatest flaw), his abiding belief in interfaith dialogue (where he stressed mutuality rather than divergence) and most especially his prophetic denouncing of racism and close friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (whom he called, "a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America.") Well, hopefully you're realizing no mere review, including mine, can accurately convey the reach, profundity and continuing relevance of Mr. Heschel's life and thought - or the sublime efforts of his daughter to authentically, essentially depict him here. So dear reader, if you crave wisdom on modern life's thorniest challenges - even insights with the capacity to change one's life, find this book. And savor it slowly, carefully as though sitting with a great teacher; because you are.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was first introduced to Abraham Joshua Heschel, not through the profound and incisive social commentary for which his is known, but through his exhaustive work on The Prophets, which I inherited from my father. Judging solely on the amount of marginalia my father included in his personal copy of that book, it was clearly something that resonated deeply with him.

I recently read an article about Heschel's friendship and close association with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (whom Heschel considered a prophet of the modern age) and therefore chose "Selected Writings" as a sampler of his work.

Through this collection of writings, Heschel has immediately taken his place among Reinhold Niebuhr, Viktor Frankl (another brilliant Jewish humanist), Thomas Merton and Dr. King himself; all men of faith whom I consider "spiritual north stars, and who recognized the sole purpose of religion is to remind us that all of mankind, regardless of creed, color, gender or ethnicity, is created in the image of God; and is therefore worthy, both collectively and individually, of ultimate consideration and respect.

To Heschel, who joined the civil rights movement of the 1960's alongside MLK, and became one of its most influential voices outside of the black community, racism was as aborrent to God as satanism. He states-

"Few of us realize that racism is man's gravest threat to man, the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason, the maximum of cruelty for a minimum of thinking."

In addition to his writings on racial disparity and the civil rights movement, this collection also includes Heschel's reflections on the prophetic imagination, the efficacy of prayer, mankind's historically troubled and self-serving relationship with God, and the far-reaching societal implications of the Shoa; which claimed so many members of Heschel's own family.

Introduction and commentary on each section is provided by Heschel's daughter Susannah, a brilliant scholar in her own right; lending both context and gravitas to her father's words.

I highly recommend this book, but with a caveat once given to me by my father in his recommendation of a separate work- "read this with caution and at the peril of your peace of mind; this book will very likely convict you."

[Brad Dell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I crawled to Heschel in a crisis of faith many months ago, afraid of God rather than in fear of God. Dissatisfied with typical Christian solutions of “God is an angry god, deal with it” and “Well, Jesus was compassionate so…”, I turned to rabbinic wisdom to discover again my God. In Heschel’s “The Prophets,” I found the Divine in anguish, and I fell in love with Him Who Hurts For Us.

Ironically, Heschel has also helped me to love Christ more deeply, and given his views of Christianity as an extension of Jewish faith rather than a solitary island, I believe he’d approve of his writing serving that purpose. When swept in his thundering cries and awestruck poetics, I can’t help but hear the echoes of Christ and His Kingdom declared.

God set a fire in Heschel‘s bones, to be a prophetic legacy of those he studied, to “pray with his legs” alongside MLK, to intercede for Soviet Jews, to call us back to a heart of wonder-worship, to mend the divides between Jew and Christian. No person has better influenced me to prayerful-actionable social justice, to national responsibility, to marinate in the prophets beyond the messianic passages, to rest in the holy day, to ask for awe. He’s helped me meet the eyes of God again.

He’d be proud of his radiant daughter’s writing in the intro and section summaries. She chases her own father’s heart; he was right, I think, to envision her as a rabbi-to-be. This is an excellent collection of writings to lose oneself in, yet come out found.

[C. Moschopoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rich book infused with deep insights into our understanding of spirituality and God's light in our lives. I've read it extremely slowly as the sections are deep and need slow contemplation. They are nourishing spiritual food that I have savoured and will return to. He has a complex understanding of our need for prayer integrated with action. Our mundane daily activities become prayer offerings, as many Christian doctors of the church have indicated. Heschel has much to offer and say about the integration of respect and honoring of the Sabbath that I have found challenging. As I have with the appreciation of joy and wonder in our lives reflecting God's creation and his will for our lives. So much food for thought in these selected readings from his books and manuscripts. His words instruct my heart and mind and I sincerely appreciate them.

[Adina · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a reason why Heschel is quoted and referenced so frequently with the great philosophers and religious thinkers of the 20th century. His is both a liberation theology and a challenge to the complacency of freedom. In a democracy, “some are guilty; all are responsible.”

[Paul Alcorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was/is a privilege to be in the presence of such faith and thoughtfulness

[Redpoet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Substituted the word UNIVERSE for the word GOD, and the writings meant much more to me. Herschel was a good human being...